‘Lumalakas at sumisigla ako pag bigayan na ng pensyon (I get stronger and active when it is social pension pay-out time,’ were the words uttered by Felomina Mendoza, 95 and the oldest social pensioner who lined up at Navotas City Hall covered court last July 12 to claim her monthly social pension.

Felomina has seven children and lives with her 5th child.  Despite her old age, she would line up with her grandson, Rolly and patiently waits for her turn to be called to claim her social pension of P500 per month to augment her daily subsistence and other medical needs.

 

 

She recalled that she used to sell candies and other food items in the neighborhood as her past time and to earn a little amount which she will use to buy the food that she likes.  But she stopped a year ago when she incidentally fell down and sustained a lower back injury.

Pedro Sabala, 82, also expressed how happy he was to receive his social pension for the first time.

‘First time kong makatanggap ng pensyon.  Ngayon lang kasi ako napasama sa listahan’ (It’s my first time to receive a pension),’ Sabala said.

Felomina and Pedro were among the 5,419 indigent senior citizens in the National Capital Region who are benefitting from the government’s social pension program implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.  Both received 1,500 as pension for the second quarter of 2012.

The payment of social pension for indigent senior citizens is provided for under Republic Act No. 9994, also known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act (ESCA) of 2010. It provides a monthly assistance or subsidy of P500, given on a quarterly basis, to the pre-identified beneficiaries who are indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly and disabled, without any regular source of income and/or support from any member of the family, and not receiving other pension benefits from government and private agencies.

Based on the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) data of DSWD, a total of 145,166 indigent senior citizens nationwide, whose ages are between 77 years old and above are covered in the implementation of the social pension program. ###